Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreats for emotional and spiritual healing after
abortion are held internationally. Rachel’s Vineyard welcomes, women, men,
couples, grandparents and abortion providers. Our retreats are held in both
Catholic and Interdenominational settings. Rachel's Vineyard Ministries is a
resource for clinical training, education, and healing models.

Rachel’s Vineyard is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization. All contributions
are tax deductible.

We work in close partnership with Priests for Life and Gospel of Life
Ministries.

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In April 2004, I attended my first Rachel’s Vineyard retreat weekend for
post-abortion healing. These are some reflections about the year after my first
retreat:

The retreat process helped me to lay all my brokenness at the feet of Christ.
I was able to ask Christ and my children for forgiveness. The mercy and love of
Christ helped me to name and claim my wounds. Christ gave me a frame for the
broken pieces of glass. At the retreat, I began to put the pieces of my broken
mirror back together inside that frame.

The early part of the process was really painful. I had to pull all those
broken pieces of glass out of my soul and look at them. This is excruciating
work. With Christ’s love all around me, comforting me and guiding me, I was able
to do this work.

I returned home from the retreat with my broken glass pieces and the frame of
Christ’s love. Since then, I have been laying those broken pieces in their
proper place inside the frame. This is slow work. Sometimes I get a piece in the
wrong place, and have to work on it some more to find where it belongs. Christ’s
forgiveness and mercy hold all those pieces in place. And the rewards for the
work are splendid. Each piece that is put into it’s right place looks beautiful
and makes the rest of the growing mirror that much closer to whole again.

My work on my remaining brokenness has been twofold. At my retreat, I
promised my children that I would make something good come out of our pain. One
way I have been doing this is by speaking out — through my voice or my pen. Each
time I talk or write about my abortions and my healing another piece of my shame
and guilt is cleaned off and fitted back into the mirror in the frame.

My second effort is interior work — quiet, prayerful work. This is harder for
me; silence is still difficult. I am so used to living with external noise
(people, TV, radio, computer) to drown out the internal pain that quiet is hard
sometimes. As my wonderful retreat facilitator recently reminded me, "There are
many quiet, personal, slow, interior steps which must be made too. These are the
deep ones, which knit you together and make you into a garment of warmth and
safety for spreading God's love and forgiveness onto others." So, in this past
year I’ve made a concerted effort to do some hibernating and do some inside
work. This led me to the decision to attend a second Rachel’s Vineyard retreat
in April 2005.

My second retreat helped me to see how much healing I have done. It also
helped me to address some lingering difficulties. Some broken shards of glass
still needed pulling out of my wounded soul. Again it was a painful process, but
well worth it. God guided me through some more healing, so my mirror is more
beautiful than ever.

God has been gracious enough to give me some objective glimpses of the woman
I am today. I am forgiven and free. I am free of the shame, the guilt, the
self-torture, the self-loathing that I carried for so long. I am free from many
of my old behaviors and reactions. I am not taking things as personally or
critically. I do not worry nearly as much about my living son. I am free to love
more openly than I have been able to in many years. I am free to listen, to
learn and to speak my truth. I am free from the chains of my abortions.

This journey is an incredible blessing. I don’t think my mirror will ever be
perfectly whole again. My abortions did change me forever. But even with a crack
or two or a few missing pieces, I am more beautiful today than I’ve ever been.
Thank you Jesus! And thank you Holy Spirit!

Susan Swander owns an insurance agency on the Central Oregon Coast. She
belongs to Sacred Heart parish in Newport, Oregon.

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Rachel’s Vineyard International Leadership
Conference

"Becoming Fruitful Vines for an Abundant Harvest"

San Damiano Retreat, Danville, CA

November 13 through 18, 2005

Rachel's Vineyard Ministries is delighted to bring its annual National
Leadership Conference to the West Coast. Hosted by the Diocese of Oakland's
After the Choice Post-Abortion Outreach, this year's conference is open to those
already laboring in the field of post-abortion ministry, those engaged more
generally in pastoral care, as well as licensed mental health and medical
professionals, clergy and lay chaplains, spiritual directors and retreat
leaders. We extend a special welcome to those who have newly discovered the
life-transforming power of the Rachel's Vineyard model of healing.

This year's conference begins Sunday evening, November 13, 2005 and continues
through Friday late afternoon, November 18. Sessions specific to Rachel's
Vineyard will begin Sunday evening and continue through Wednesday morning,
November 16. Feedback from past conferences has suggested the need to allow
participants some "down time" to rest, refresh and begin to absorb what they
have taken in through the workshops. For this reason, Wednesday afternoon and
early evening are free for time to either relax around the retreat center or
take part in an optional off-site excursion. There are two excursion options:
Either a San Francisco City Tour or a Winery Tour.

By popular demand, we will once again welcome Greg Magirescu to lead us in
musical prayer. Another special treat will be a concert and Eucharistic Holy
Hour with Nationally acclaimed recording artist, Michael John Poirier.

Wednesday night we will re-convene the entire group at the retreat center and
Thursday morning we continue with a two-day workshop on healing ministry given
by internationally renowned healing pioneers Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn.
Conference attendees are strongly encouraged, though not required, to stay for
both days of the Linn workshop, as it promises to be personally enriching and
offer concrete tools to those engaged in various healing ministries. Many of the
Linns books, on topics ranging from 12-step recovery to healing pre-natal hurts,
healing the family tree, healing our image of God and healing of our life's
purpose, will be available for purchase during the final days of the conference.

Workshop selections will take place on-site. In other words, there is no need
to commit to specific workshops at the time of registration. Participants may
choose individual sessions as freely as they wish, while others may principally
take workshops in one of the four tracks offered this year: Foundational Issues,
Clinical Skills, Outreach, or Personal and Team Growth.

In short, this year's Leadership Conference will allow those new to Rachel's
Vineyard to learn, pray and network alongside those who are richly experienced
in offering Rachel's Vineyard retreats and support groups. Those working in
other fields of spiritual care and human development are also warmly welcome.

· Workshops and Discussion will help you cultivate the vineyard of our shared
ministry in the place where God is using you.

· Prayer and Praise will lift our hearts to God and celebrate the Holy
Spirit's work in our lives and in the lives of those we serve.

· Chaplains and Mental Health Professionals will be available throughout the
conference to pray with you, celebrate sacramental reconciliation, or help you
process personal issues touched by the conference.

· The Linns' two-day Pastoral Care Workshop will open you to God's continued
healing and equip you with additional tools to serve as an instrument of God's
healing in the lives of others.

· Fun and Fellowship will include music, free time, optional excursions and
the renewal and building of friendships.

We anticipate our gathering to include participants and presenters working in
various parts of North America and internationally. Space at the lovely San
Damiano Retreat is limited to 120 participants, so early registration is highly
recommended.

___Plan B: $360 (For those who need to depart early: Arriving Sunday, 11/13
for only 4 nights, departing anytime Thursday, 11/17. Includes all fees for
lodgings, meals, RV conference and day one of 2-day Linn workshop (you may stay
for as much of the Linns' first day as you are able).

Many of us have friends and family members who were left broken and wounded
after an abortion. Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries extends an invitation to receive
forgiveness and wholeness that Christ, the Divine Physician, longs to offer
them. Lives are changed and transformed, as people are able to receive
forgiveness and in turn, forgive themselves. As each person shares their story
they are unconditionally accepted and allowed to heal through the love of
Christ. Our desire is to reach out and minister to every individual that is
suffering because of an abortion.

Your donation will shine hope and mercy into the dark night of human pain
caused by abortion. Please support our efforts with your prayers and assist us
by sending a tax-deductible donation of $1,000…$500…$100…or even $25 to defray
our training and retreat costs. Click here:
www.rachelsvineyard.org/support/support.htm
to contribute via credit card or PayPal or send an e-mail directly to me
t.burke@rachelsvineyard.org
and I will forward a postage-paid envelope.

A person must grow up and stop using God and begin to ask God to use him or
her. Real prayer is not telling God what we want. It is putting ourselves at His
disposal so that He can tell us what He wants. Prayer is not trying to get God
to change His will. It is trying to find out what His will is, to align
ourselves or realign ourselves with His purpose for the world and for us.

Dr. Samuel Shoemaker

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New Website Researching Impact of Abortion

Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries invites you to visit a new website developed to
study the effects of abortion on four populations, men, women, grandparents, and
medical Personnel. Please visit:
www.abortionresearch.net

If you have experienced an abortion, or your partner has suffered the loss of
a child through abortion, or you have a son or daughter who has made the choice
to abort, or if you have ever worked in the abortion industry, we invite you to
contribute to this important research effort.

This site is being developed for research in cooperation with Dr. Vincent
Rue, Ph.D. and Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D. who have contributed a tremendous amount
of scientific investigation in the field of post abortion issues.

If you have questions or would like to be listed as a source for counseling,
please contact Catherine Coyle, PhD. at
ctcoyle@hotmail.com or call
608-271-6997.

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A Note From the Pastoral Director

Dear Friends,

If you read the letters of St. Paul in the order in which they were written
(which is different from the order in which they appear in the New Testament),
you see that Paul express an ever deeper awareness, as time goes on, of his own
sinfulness. He speaks of himself as "an apostle", then as "apostle and servant,"
then as one "not worthy to be called an apostle", and finally, as "the chief of
sinners."

So it needs to be with us. As we continue to touch the wounds caused by
abortion, we should continue to see a reflection of those wounds in us. Abortion
wounds because sin wounds. It divides us in four directions: from God, from one
another, from nature, and from ourselves. We are no strangers to evil,
temptation, and sin. We know what it’s like to know what is good and to find
ourselves doing the opposite. That’s why we can have compassion for those who
have aborted a child - or many children.

As Pastoral Director and Chairman of the Board of Rachel’s Vineyard, I pray
for each of you every day. As I minister to those who have had abortions, and to
those who have performed abortions with their own hands, I thank the Lord for
your faithfulness and rejoice in the awareness that we all minister together, in
the humility that acknowledges that we, too, need His healing and forgiveness.

With prayerful regards,

Fr. Frank Pavone
Pastoral Director

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God frees our souls, not from service, not from duty, but into service and
into duty; and he who mistakes the purpose of his freedom mistakes the character
of his freedom. He who thinks that he is being released from the work, and not
set free in order that he may accomplish that work, mistakes the condition into
which his soul is invited to enter.

Phillips Brooks, The Law of Growth

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"Well Done, my Good and Faithful Servants!"

The Retirement of Mark and Barbara Hennes

By Caryn Stevens

After 12 years of dedicated and tireless service, Mark and Barbara Hennes
will retire on July 1, 2005, from the helm of Abortion AfterCare-Healing, the
post-abortion ministry of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas (CPLC)
in Dallas, Texas.

Mark and Barbara worked the ministry together, but Mark was given the
official title of Director. While Mark handled most of the nuts-and-bolts of the
ministry, Barbara also helped and worked the phones, speaking with the wounded
men and women on our hotline and bringing them to the Rachel’s Vineyard
retreats, to their children, and to Jesus.

The Hennes’ involvement with this ministry began in the early 90’s. In 1993,
as a newly licensed social worker in counseling, Mark took some referrals from
the White Rose Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy and post-abortion counseling
center in Dallas. At the same time, he was asked to join an advisory group with
the CPLC, which later evolved into the board of directors. About 3 years later,
the Committee asked Mark to find a way to start a post-abortion ministry for
them. The Hennes’ were impressed with what they heard and wrote guidelines to
begin this new ministry.

In the spring of 1997, Mark solicited an inquiry group to help develop a
proposal to the Bishop to start a post-abortion ministry under the CPLC. Later
that fall, Mark proposed this idea to Bishop Grahmann, but he declined. At that
particular time, the Diocese of Dallas was embroiled in litigation and the
Bishop was not able to move ahead with the new ministry. The following year,
Mark and Barbara attended a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat in Philadelphia and were
given sufficient training to again initiate the movement in Dallas. Mark
returned to the Bishop in October of 1998 and he "enthusiastically embraced the
plan" to launch Abortion AfterCare-Healing.

After a busy publicity effort, Father Blair Raum, the trainer for Project
Rachel, came to Texas in January of 1999 and conducted the first Rachel Training
Day. This was followed on the next day with the start of the first Rachel’s
Vineyard Retreat. According to Mark, that first retreat was "a true learning
experience!" The retreat was led by Father Raum and assisted by another priest.
The rest of the retreat team consisted of Mark, two other mental health workers
facilitating and Barbara handling the props and the household duties. There were
eight retreatants that weekend, and eight souls that were set free!

From that first Rachel’s Vineyard retreat, Mark and Barbara have now
conducted 25 retreats in English and, with the help of Aurora Tinajero, Director
of Spanish Ministry for CPLC, conducted four in Spanish. The ministry has grown
to include many different aspects of post-abortion healing. There is an
Awareness campaign, which includes presentations and training at parishes within
the diocese. Part of that awareness initiative includes "Rachel’s Corner"
quotes. These quotes – which include such things as statements from women who
have experienced abortion, abortion statistics, and biblical verses – are
provided to each parish for the purpose of including these in each Sunday’s
church bulletin. These have been very effective in getting out the message of
forgiveness and peace to those wounded by the tragedy of abortion.

There are also theme-based reunions for retreatants following the weekend
event. These reunions have helped retreatants and team leaders stay in contact
with one another and they provide a venue for continued healing, both
psychologically and spiritually. At each reunion, there is literature provided
to help anyone who may be dealing with aftercare issues not fully addressed in
the retreat.

The Hennes’ have lived in the light and love of Jesus, and they have conveyed
this in every aspect of their work. Through their willingness to say "Yes" to
serving the post-abortive, and their ability to "carry the heart of a woman,"
they allowed God to work through them and bring healing and wholeness to the
spirits of dozens of hurting mothers and fathers. Mark and Barbara are an
inspiration for us to continue reaching out and lovingly help one another.

To quote Pope John Paul II from his encyclical letter, On the Mercy of God:

"The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy –
The most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer – and when she
brings people close to the sources of the Savior’s Mercy, of which she is the
trustee and dispenser."

Mark and Barbara Hennes lived this authentic life. They accepted the call to
profess and proclaim Christ’s mercy. And, through their leadership, they brought
people to the sources of the Lord’s mercy, and dispensed of it readily,
willingly and plentifully. They leave behind a legacy of soul-healing and
everlasting hope, not only to those they have served, but to those who have
worked beside them as they toiled in the vineyard.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Mary Welch for her donation toward much
needed media equipment in memory of her precious son Jim.

We pray for the soul of Maria L. Rau, age 35, who departed this world
suddenly of an accidental drowning at her home in Arizona. Maria was a beautiful
soul that dedicated herself to God, family, education, and reaching out to
anyone that was in need of a helping hand. Her radiance, strength, and endurance
to live life will be dearly missed by all of us. She was a beloved friend to the
Rachel’s Vineyard Community in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

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"A mother’s love endures through it all - even in the face of the world’s
condemnation."

I leave you now with this prayer:
that the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to each one of you,
that He will give you the strength to go out and profess that you are Christian,
that He will show you that He alone can fill your hearts.
Accept His freedom and embrace His truth,
and be messengers of the certainty
that you have been truly liberated
through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
This will be the new experience,
the powerful experience, that will generate,
through you, a more just society and a better world.
God bless you and may the joy of Jesus be always with you!